5 Questions With Francesca Canepa of Port Zienna

As supporters of emerging designers, RAGTRADE ATLANTA was ecstatic to come across Port Zienna. We had the opportunity to e-interview Port Zienna’s founder, Francesca Canepa. When reading her responses, you can feel the excitement she has for the brand. Her responses give us background of Port Zienna, the brand’s purpose, and also what’s next! Although Port Zienna is new, it’s minimalist aesthetic, monochromatic feels, and high quality pieces are sure to have a positive impact on the fashion community.

Port Zienna is a newly launched ready-to-wear line made of essential pieces consciously and sustainable created using the haute couture technique of draping.

Draping is an haute couture expertise for hand sculpting fabrics directly on a dress form, resulting in garments that are imbued with the designer’s unique sense of style and experimentation. When you wear haute couture, you feel empowered and strong, and we believe a woman should feel like this everyday, in their everyday clothes. So our main goal was to blend these two together to create a ready-to-wear line.

Our inspiration comes from a minimalistic aesthetic, from architects such as Walter Gropius to sculpture artists like Richard Serra and Troels Sandegård. Our inspiration is very clean and monochromatic and we maintain these values throughout our collection, keeping it simple while creating a sustainable high-quality essential garment.

What influence do you hope for Port Zienna to have on the fashion industry?

We want to be known for a good quality, sustainable brand, that creates their designs through the high expertise technique of draping. Our process is all sustainable, from the selection of fabrics which are all eco-friendly blends to the manufacturer process which we monitor in my home country in Peru. We understand the impact that the fashion industry has in our world today and we want to be a brand that is trying to change this. This is the reason why Port Zienna is a small brand, we want to keep our collections to small quantities, and not explode our industry as fast fashion is doing right now.

What are some trials and tribulations that you’ve faced as an emerging designer?

One of the most difficult challenges I’ve faced as an emerging designer was the ‘when’ question. For years I’ve had a great job in the fashion industry here in New York, this was not only an amazing opportunity to start knowing people inside the industry, but I felt supported financially as well. So my biggest fear was to loose this support and start my own business. I was afraid of the change and had a thousand questions yet to be answered. But I finally decided to take this risk and start asking ‘what if’ to myself, this is what pushed me to launch Port Zienna.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to emerging designers?

Perseverance. Port Zienna is also new in the industry and we can say that although the process to become known is difficult, it is wonderful to believe and fight for something you have a passion for. You have to persevere throughout the entire process, knock doors, call people, and although it’s very scary to get out there and show your work to the world, you wouldn’t be making a change if it does not scare you.

We are very excited to share with RAGTRADE ATLANTA that Port Zienna will be showcasing their Spring Summer 18 Collection in Vancouver Fashion Week this upcoming September. This will be our first runway show presenting Collection No. I so we are very excited for this next move.

Our main goal is to keep growing consciously and sustainable as an international brand. We are already researching some very interesting recycled fabrics that we plan on using for the next season. We are always trying to challenge ourselves and innovative in our creative process!